The Longest Three Days Of My Life
by RizzV825
Summary: This story is loosely based on Ep. 204" Brown Eyed Girl." Jane's 15 yr old daughter is snatched on the way home from school. The characters except for a few additions belong to TNT and Tess Gerritsen. This is my first online fanfic, hope you enjoy.


The Longest Three Days Of My Life: This is a story loosely based on Ep. 204 "Brown Eyed Girl" Jane's 15 yr old daughter is snatched on the way home from school. These characters (except for a few additions.) belong to TNT and Tess Gerritsen.

It's 2:15pm on a Wednesday afternoon. The school bus from South Boston High has just dropped off the last of it's students in the busy hustle and bustle of Boston's city streets. Nikki Rizzoli and Thereasa Mayhew make their way home among other busy Bostonians. The girls have been best friends since they were eleven. They met in the sixth grade when Nikki, and her mom moved to the south end of Boston. The two have a lot in common, and truly understand each other. The two highschool sophomores are dressed in punk attire, Nikki tends to dress more for comfort wearing her favorite pair of worn blue jeans, a grey and black pair of Vans with purple laces , a grey t-shirt with the band Straight Line Stitch in white lettering emblazoned on the front, and as always her wrists were adorned with multiple silver chained and black leather bracelets. Her long brunette hair sported a dyed streak of blonde down the left side. Thereasa was a little more flamboyant wearing knee high black boots, a short black pleated skirt, and a black ripped baby tee. She too wore an assortment of bracletes, and her hair was in a shoulder lenght pixie cut, the top layer her natural platinum blonde, and the bottom layer dyed black. The girls walked home discussing everything from school to music to their favorite zombie movies.

When the girls were on their way to Nikki's apartment building, they discovered that a portion of the road was closed for construction, blocking their normal route home.

" Shit, how are we going to get home?" Nikki pondered as the surveyed the construction area.

" Hhhmm...doesn't look like we can get through anywhere." Thereasa said looking around.

" Hhhmm..." Nikki thought to herself as she looked around the city block for an alternate route."I have an Idea." Nikki said as she spotted an alley way she knew would lead them to the back of the apartment building. Going around from E 8th st. all the way up to 7th was a long way around, and would put htem way out of their way, so Nikki thought the alley would be quicker.

"We're going through here?"

" Yeah, we can get to the back of the building from here." Nikki said as the made her way through the alley and hopped up on the dumpster next to a tall chain link fence.

" Are you sure about this?" Thereasa asked her friend.

" Yeah, we'll get there in no time." Nikki said as she scaled the fence. She hopped down on the other side, and waited for her friend. Thereasa had her first leg over when Nlyikki started to head toward the corner, and without warning a navy blue work van pulled in front of the alley. Thereasa was barely on the ground when the door opened and a man hopped out, he was about 6ft wearing a ski mask, a black coat, and dark blue jeans. The stranger came quickly behind Nikki and grabbed her placing a chlorophormed rag over her mouth. The scared teen tried desperately to break free from him, kicking frantically and attempting to scream, but it was no use as the man quickly pulled her inside, and the van sped off down the road. Thereasa hopped to the ground terrified as she attempted to run to her best friend's rescue.

" Nikki! Nikki!" Thereasa called out as she ran down the street after the van in an attempt to see where it was going. The van made a right on E 7th, and then made a sharp left on 1st and sped down the street.

" Stop! Please!" Thereasa shouted as she tried to follow the van, but it had already disappeared from her line of vision. Thereasa was breathless and panicked looking around desperately trying to see where the van may have gone to. Tears streamed down her face as she worried what may become of her closest friend. Thereasa then sprinted down the street to the only place she could think of to go, to Boston Police Dept. to find Nikki's mother, Det. Jane Rizzoli. Thereasa dreaded being the bearer of bad news, but she knew Nikki's mother needed to know what happened, and Det. Rizzoli was a cop Thereasa knew she could trust.

Meanwhile, Jane was arriving on a crime scene approaching Det. Frost who clued her in on the horrific scene.

" Hey Frost, what have we got?"

" Young girl about 14yrs old, beaten to death. A homeless guy found her in the dumpster wrapped in tarp." Frost explained as they approached the victim crime scene techs had already moved from the dumpster.

"Jesus." Jane mumbled to herself as she approached the badly beaten girl. Dr. Maura Isles was already there examining the girls injuries.

" Do we have an ID on this girl?" Jane asked Frost.

"Marissa Camlin. School ID is from Elizabeth Bishop Middle School." Jane turned to Maura inquiring more information.

" How long has she been dead?"

" According to her liver temp, about fifteen hours. She died around 12:45am." Maura answered.

" Do we have a cause of death?" Jane asked.

" It's likely blunt force trauma to the left side of her head. I'll know more once I do the autopsy." Jane asked the next question with a heavy heart.

" Was she sexually assaulted?" Maura sighed deeply as the answered.

"Yeah."

" This is the third one in two weeks." Jane said sickened by this poor girl's condition. She layed on the groung among the tarp she was wrapped in. Bruising covered the left side of her face around here eye, and on her forehead. A strand on her long blonde hair was stuck to her cheek by blood. She was dressed in baby blue boy shorts, and a white, blood soaked tank top. Her mounth and hands were bound by clear packaging tape, dry blood covered her inner thighs. Whoever did this to Marissa brutalized her, and threw her away like garbage. Jane was determined to catch the bastard who raped and murdered these three girls who were found. Marissa's body was on it's way back to the morgue for autopsy, and CSRU collected the rest of what was in the dumpster for whatever trace evidence might help find their killer.

Meanwhile, Thereasa had arrived at police headquarters just before Jane and Maura had gotten back. The fifteen year old was frantic and crying looking for help to find Nikki. Thereasa burst through the doors, and looked around in search of Jane.

" I need to see Detective Rizzoli, is she here?" Thereasa asked the uniformed officer at the door. The officer was concered and confused by this frantic girl.

" Okay, calm down. What's the problem?" the officer asked.

" I need Detective Rizzoli, I need to talk to her, it's an emergency!" Thereasa pleaded with the officer. In the midst of Thereasa's cries, Jane and Maura came in behind her. Jane saw her daughter's best friend crying, and visibly scared, and was imediately concerned.

"Thereasa, sweetie what's going on?" Jane asked moving closer to her.

" Somebody took Nikki. " Thereasa said as she sobbed.

" What?" Jane asked in almost a whisper as the air tightened up in her chest. Jane felt as if the world had frozen in time. She just stared as if waiting to wake up from the nightmare she was having. The thought of her precious girl taken by some psyco made her blood run cold.

" W-what happened? Where were you guys?" Jane asked.

" We got off the bus, and we were on our way home, but the road to get to the apartment building was closed, so we went through this alley where we could get there from the back, and this navy blue work van pulled up, and a man got out, grabbed her, and took her away...I'm so sorry, we never should have went through there." Thereasa sobbed as Jane pulled her into a hug.

" Sweetheart, it's okay. It's not your fault. We're gonna have to ask you some questions, okay?"

" Okay" Thereasa sniffled. Jane then lead her into the cafe with Maura.

Thereasa sat down at the table with Jane and Maura, Jane brought her a bottle of water, and some napkins to wipe her tears. As freaked out as Jane was that her daughter was taken, she strangely found herself in survival mode. Although she felt panic comming on she wanted to get more information from Thereasa before she freaked out completely. Jane sat at the table nervously as she started to ask her questions.

" Okay Thereasa, you said the van was blue, right?"

" Yeah."

" Did you get a look at the licence plate?"

" Uhmm...I know it started with an 'N' , maybe there was an 'X' in it. I don't remember it all. Everything happened so fast. " Thereasa said taking a sip of her water.

" Okay, what did the man who took her look like?" Jane asked.

" He had a ski mask on. He was wearing a black coat, dark blue jeans, and black gloves. I guess he was about 6ft." Thereasa explained.

" Did you see anyone else in the van?"

" No, the windows were blacked out. I couldn't see anything." Thereasa said wiping away tears. Jane squeezed her hand and took a deep breath.

" Sweetie, will you excuse me. I'll be back in just a minute."

" Okay." Thereasa answered.

Jane stepped out into the hallway, and Maura followed. Jane was trying to keep it together, but she felt herself slowly starting to break, and she didn't want to start crying in front of Thereasa. Jane's eyes were starting to well up as Korsak and Frost stepped off the elevator, and saw a distraught detective standing there.

" Jane, is everything okay?" Korsak asked walking up to the two women.

" Nikki's missing." Jane answered shaken as Maura held her arm in an effort to comfort her.

" Oh my god, what happened?" Korsak asked shocked.

" Thereasa said the two of them were walking home, and someone in a blue van pulled up and grabbed her." Jane's shaky hand handed Korsak her notepad with Thereasa's information. " This is the information Thereasa gave me." Korsak took the notepad, and everyone followed him as he walked in to talk more to Thereasa. Korsak and Jane sat at the table with Thereasa, and Frost and Maura sat behind them.

" Thereasa hi, I'm Detective Korsak. I'm need to ask you a few more questions, okay. "

" Okay." Thereasa answered still crying.

" Where exactly were the two of you when Nikki was taken?"

" The bus dropped us off on E 8th st. and part of the road was closed so we couldn't get through.." Thereasa took a deep breath as she continued." then Nikki looked around for a way through, and saw an alley that would take us to Brewster, and we could get to the back of the building. The van pulled up on that corner, and grabbed her." Thereasa cried wiping away tears. Jane rubbed her shoulder.

" Were you able to see where they were going?" Korsak asked her.

" I saw the make a right, and then a left on 1st, but by the time I got to the corner, they were already gone. I was scared, didn't know what else to do so I ran here." Thereasa sobbed.

" It's okay, you did the right thing. Can you tell me anything else about the van?"

" I just know it was navy blue, and the windows were blacked out...uhm...it looked kind of old. The paint was faded on it"

" Did it have any other distictive features like a roof rack,or did anything look like it was broken or missing?" Korsak asked.

Thereasa took a deep breath as she throught. "Uhmm no, no roof rack. Nothing looked like it was broken. It just looked like an old van." Thereasa sniffled.

" I'm sorry I can't remember more." Jane patted her arm.

" It's okay Honey. You did good. You did the right thing comming to us." Thereasa looked at Jane wiping away tears.

" I hope somebody can find her."

" I hope so to, Hon." Jane said.

Korsak sent Frost upstairs to attempt to find a van fitting the description. Frost had called Thereasa's mom before to let her know what was going on, and to let her know where Thereasa was. When everyone came into the hallway, Thereasa's mom, Cheryl came through the doors, and when Thereasa saw her, she ran up and hugged her. Cheryl was deeply concerned, and truly felt for Jane.

" Detective Frost told me what happened." Cheryl told her daughter.

" I was so scared, Mom. They took her right in front of me, and I didn't know what to do." Thereasa cried in her mother's arms.

" It's okay, Honey. You went to the police, you did good." Cheryl sighed as she turned to Jane, and gave her a hug.

" Jane, I'm so sorry. I hope to god they find her." Jane nods.

" Me too."

" If there's anything else we can do please call us, okay."

" Will do. Thanks Cheryl." Jane says as Thereasa leaves with her mom. Jane, Maura, and Korsak are in the lobby. Korsak takes one of Jane's hands in both of his.

" We're gonna find her Jane, okay. I promise, we're everything we can to bring her home." Korsak said trying to reassure her. Jane took a deep breath and nodded. Korsak went upstairs to gather more information. Jane stood there in the lobby. Maura was deeply concerned and wished she knew what to do.

" Jane, I'm so sorry this is happening." Jane gave her a half smile.

" I know you are."

" Is there anything I can do?" Maura asked.

" You should start that autopsy. Maybe there's a connection to this girl that'll help us find Nikki."

" Jane, we don't know it' s the same person."

" I have a bad feeling, Maura. We've found three dead girls, all with the same M.O. I...I just want to find Nikki fast."

" I'll do everything I can." Maura says patting Jane's arm as she heads downstairs to start the autopsy.

Jane paced around pondering everything that could possibly be happening to Nikki. Her mind went back and forth between assuming the worst, and the hope that she was alright. Jane nervously wrung her hands, and paced in the lobby for awhile before finally sitting at a barstool in the cafe. She sat there one hand on her forehead, and the other in a fist covering her mouth while she sat there jiggling her leg. Angela Rizzoli came out of the kitchen to see her daughter upset.

" Sweetheart, is everything okay?" Angela asked walking over to her. Jane looked up at her mother while a single tear ran down her face.

" Nikki's been taken, Ma." Her lip quivered as she tried to hold back her tears. Angela wiped Jane's tears away, and wrapped her arms around her daughter. Jane started to cry into her mother's shoulder. Angela stroked Jane's hair like she'd done many times when she was a little girl. Angela was at a loss for what she could say of do except just hold her daughter.

" I'm so scared, Ma. " Jane said as she sobbed. Angela hugged her tighter as she started to cry too. Everyone was used to seeing Jane as the hard nosed Det. Rizzoli, who stopped at nothing to get her man. At this moment she was a frightened mother, scared for her child's well being. Jane had many cases concerning children,and she thought she could imagine how they must feel untill it happened to her own daughter. In this situation, she felt truly lost.

Maura is down in the morgue with Korsak doing the autopsy. Although she does many autopsies, it is still heartbreaking to have a case when such a young child has been brutalized like this. Upon further review in the morgue, Dr. Isles has gained more insight into the girl's death, each new detail being more shocking.

" You find anything new, Doc?" Korsak asked. Maura shows Korsak the x-ray of Marissa's skull injuries.

" Her skeletal injuries show that she suffered from Epidural Hematoma, the bulk of the damage is around the zygomaticum and the sphenoidale..." Maura explained pointing to the cheek bone and around the eye socket. " ...but that's not what killed her."

" What did?" Korsak asked dreading the answer. Maura moved the camera to show him the rib cage.

" She had internal bleeding due to the blunt force trauma to her rib cage. She was still alive when she was put in the dumpster. The tape over her mouth ended up suffocating her."

" My god." Korsak whispered to himself. Maura sighed deeply as she continued.

" There's more. She was object raped. It was likely a cylindrical object measuring 32inches in diameter. My guess is it was a baseball bat."

" Jesus." Korsak murmured to himself. Maura jotted down some more notes down in her files.

" The abraisions on her wrists ans ankles suggest she was in captivity for several days. According to the timeline with the previous two cases, this killer may have had more than one girl at a time."

" You think maybe he abused one while the other was forced to watch?"

" It's my opinion." Maura answered. She couldn't help, but stare at the dead child on her autopsy table. _This is somebody's baby_. Maura thought to herself as she looked at the cherub cheeked young girl. Her honey blonde hair, not unlike her own layed stiff and tossled as it drapped down her shoulders. Marissa was definitely a beautiful girl. With all that was happened with three dead girls, and now Nikki going missing, it all got to be too much for the M.E.

" Will you excuse me?" Maura said exasperatedly as she stepped into her office. She shut the door and leaned against it trying to catch her breath. Dr. Maura Isles has seen many groutesque things in her career as a pathologist, but this was different. To see the brutal torture this girl has gone through was overwhelming, and it made her worry even more for Nikki with the possibility that the same person captured her too. She's known Nikki since she was eight years old, and loved her very much. Maura worried about what might be happening to her, and her heart broke for Jane. After several minutes, Korsak came in to see if she was okay.

" Dr. Isles, are you okay?"

" That poor girl went through so much torture. To think that Nikki is out there with god knows who must be so hard on Jane. If anything ever happened to Nikki, it would kill her."

Korsak takes the doctor by her arms.

" We're gonna do whatever it takes to find her, I swear." Maura nods taking a deep breath. The two of them exited the office to finish their work on the case.

Nikki is waking up from the chlorophorm. Her vision is blurry, but is slowly starting to clear, while she lays on a bed in the darkened room. She can't see anything, and doesn't know where she is. Her mouth is taped over, and her ankles and wrists are bound. As Nikki's conciousness comes back, her heart starts pounding, and she looks around the room terrified of what awaits her. The door cracks open, and a strip of light enters the room. Nikki shuts her eyes tight as she tries to adjust to the light. She can hear the heavy tread of work boots thud on the floor as a masked man stands over her. Nikki is shaking and crying while the mans hand reaches to brush hair behind her ear. The stranger took Nikki's chin in his hand for a few moments before leaving the room, and shutting the door. Nikki squirmed terrified, trying desperately to free herself. Tears streamed down her face as she prayed for someone to find her.

Jane is sitting in the cafe running her finger around the rim of her coffee cup. She had many things swirling around her head, but mostly she was trying to keep herself toghether. Unable to sit any longer, Jane decides to go upstairs to see if Frost and Korsak have made any progress. Korsak is at his desk looking through case files of the other victims trying to find comparissons, and Frost is at his computer trying to narrow down his search for the van. Jane pull up a chair next to Frost, and sits down.

" Find anything?"

" Not yet. Ive been trying to narrow down the search based on the couple of letters from the licence plate, and the van's description, but so far nothing." Frost looked at Jane seeing the distraught expression on his partner's face.

" Jane I'm s-"

"I know." She said patting his shoulder. " Thank you."

" We're gonna find her."

" I hope so." Jane sighed running her hands through her hair as she walked over to Korsak's desk and sat across from him. Jane flips through some crime scene photos from one of the other victims. All three girls were in their early teens, and all of them sexually assaulted before being beaten to death. Korsak shows Jane a map marked where each of the girls were found.

" Our first victim, Kayla James was found behind a house in the back bay, and the second girl Jamie Costa, was found in some woods behind a shopping mall on 2nd street, not far from where we found Marissa Camlin's body. It's possible we've narrowed down our killer's stomping grounds. All three girls were found pretty close toghether." Jane looked at the map and nodded.

" Maybe." She said quietly.

" Jane, if you don't want to, you don't have to be here for this. It would be understandable if you wanted to go home for awhile."

" No, I'm not going anywhere. I can't . I just can't be at home right now."

" I understand." Korsak nodded.

By this time it was 7:45pm, and getting dark out. Nikki has been missing for five hours, but for Jane it felt like an eternity. She was exhausted and shaky, but she sure as hell wasn't going anywhere. She was not about to let her daughter end up like these other girls. Jane was determined to find Nikki, even if she had to scower every inch of the city herself.

The guys toiled into the night still searching for the van, compairing the case files, and talking to residents around each crime scene looking for any information that might be useful. Everyone had a hunch that the same person had taken Nikki, but there was still no difinitive connection. Maura was examining the body downstairs in hopes to find a link to Nikki. Jane paced up and down the hallways, before flopping down on the couch in Maura's office. She had the map with each crime scene marked, and just stared at it. It was now 10pm, and after staring at the map for an immeasurable amount of time, sleep finally took her over.

The next morning, Korsak and Frost decide to drive up the route they were given that was taken by the van, in hopes of finding any clues that would lead them to Nikki. Both men were tired from working all night, and searching every possibility that would bring them closer to finding her. They were stopped at a traffic light two blocks from where Nikki was taken. While making idle chit chat in the car, Korsak was looking out the window, and saw something in the grass that looked like a cell phone. Korsak immediately put the car in park, and snapped on gloves as he approached the object in the grass while Frost followed.

" Is that...it's Nikki's cell phone, isn't it?" Korsak asked as he picked up the abandoned phone. The two men looked at each other in bewilderment.

" It is." Korsak confirmed, having remembered seeing her with it before. He looked around the street corner hoping to see something else that might be helpful. Whoever took Nikki must have pitched it out the window, so they couldn't track her to her phone.

Across the street was a gas station, and one of it's attendants standing on the corner smoking a cigarette. He noticed the cops placing the in an evidence bag, and called out to them.

" That's still there? Thought someone would'a snatched it up by now." Korsak and Frost walked over to the man puzzled.

" Did you see this cell phone get thrown out a car window?" Frost asked him.

" Yeah. Damndest thing. Who just throws out a cell phone, huh?"

" Do you remember the vehichle that threw this out?" Frost asked.

" I believe it was a van." The man answered vaguely.

" Was the van blue?" Korsak snapped up.

" Uhmm...yeah, it was."

" Did you get a look at the license plate?" Korsak asked him hopefully, but he just shook his head.

" Didn't really look at it, Man."

" You see a van throw a phone out a window, and you don't think to tell anyone? We've got a missing kid out there."Korsak snapped at him.

" Hey look, I'm sorry I didn't see the license plate. We do have security cameras in our station. We've been robbed several times in the last couple months, and the boss thought it'd be handy to have around. Maybe one of our cameras caught something." He said pointing to a camera by one of the pumps.

" You think we could get the tapes from the last two days?" Korsak asked.

" Gotta ask the boss. He's in the store." Korsak and Frost went in the store, talked to the gas station's proprietor, and left with two days of security tapes. They went back to headquarters with more hope that they would find Nikki.

Back at heaquarters, Jane sat motionless at a table in the police cafe. She'd had very little sleep in the last day and a half, and thought of nothing, but Nikki. The Surgeon case had taken a lot out of her, but this was like her worst nightmare had happened. Jane imagined many different scenarios, and none of them had a good outcome. Jane sat for about ten minutes, before Angela brought her out a sandwich to try and eat.

" Honey, you need to try and eat something. Please, it'll be good for you."

Jane quietly obliged her mother as she took a bite of her sandwich that went down dry in her throat. The second bite wasn't anymore welcoming as she felt her stomach turning, and she pushed her plate away.

" I'm sorry, Ma. I can't." Jane said trembling at the table. Angela sat with her quietly, and took her daughter's hand. Jane looked up at her mother seeing concern in her face.

" Maybe I can stomach a few crackers." Angela smiled, and rubbed her back.

" Sure, Sweetie." Angela said as she got Jane a few crackers from behind the counter, and placed them on the table in front of her.

At that time, Korsak and Frost were arriving back with the security tapes, and Nikki's cell phone. Korsak and Angela saw each other, and stepped into the hallway.

" Have you guys found anything?" Angela asked him.

" We may have found some survallence footage that caught shots of the van. We'll know more once we look at the tapes." Korsak explained, and Angela nodded. Korsak looks in at Jane, who is sitting picking at her food.

" How's she holding up?"

" She's a wreck." Angela sighed. " I just wish there was more I could do for her." Angela blinks away tears. Korsak places his hand on her shoulder.

" You're doing great. She needs all the support she can get right now."

" Please do whatever you can to bring my gandbaby home." Angela pleaded.

" We will, I promise. Whatever it takes." Korsak told her as he headed upstairs.

Korsak brings the cell phone to evidence, before joining Frost at the TV monitor reviewing the security tapes. Nikki has been missing now for almost two days, and the fear that she was already dead was growing in everyone. Detective Korsak has been through a lot with Jane, and has seen her at her worst after being attacked by Hoyt. He couldn't bare to see Jane lose her only child, who meant the world to her, and he hoped these tapes would be helpful. There was hours of footage with cars passing the gas station. They had seen several vans pass by, but none of them seemed to be in a hurry, and none of them threw anything out their window. As the guys were reviewing the tapes, Maura rushed in with new evidence. Korsak was startled by her when she hurried in.

" Here...I found something." Maura said trying to catch her breath.

" Something from the autopsy?" Korsak asked.

" No, a print on the cell phone."

" What? I would have thought the perp would have thought to wear gloves." Korsak said suprised.

" He likely did, but the cheaper ones can still leave prints. " Maura explained.

" They do this so many times they get cocky, and that's when they slip up." Korsak hands Frost the print evidence. " Frost, run this through the computer, see if you can find a match in the system." Just as Frost is processing the print, they see it. The gas station footage caught a navy blue van throwing out an object.

" Korsak, look at this." Frost said as he rewound the tape and they all watched it again. The van indeed threw out a cell phone while driving past the gas station.

" Oh my god, there it is." Korsak said as he pointed at a navy blue van identified as a 1990 Ford Econoline.

" Frost, can you enhance that?" Korsak asked pointing to the licence plate. Frost zeroed in on the licence plate, and made the image clearer. They now had a licence plate number in full view.

" No wonder we couldn't find it in the system, it's a dealer plate." Korsak said. " We're looking for a car dealership, or a mechanic garage." Frost runs the licence plate numbers and matches it to an autobody shop on the corner of 1st street and Lockwood Dr. Korsak jots down the licence plate numbers, and call for a BOLO.

" Yes. I need a BOLO on a navy blue, 1990 Ford Econoline van with the dealer plate November, Lima, X-ray, 98, Delta." As everyone was hovered around the computer, they slowy notice Jane standing in the doorway. She was going crazy, and needed to know what was going on. The image on the van was still frozen on the screen, and all Jane could do was stare at it as she started to speak.

" Is that it? Is that the van? " Jane asked hopefully.

" We think so." Korsak said as he walked over to her.

" It appears the perp threw Nikki's cell phone out the window. A gas station camera caught this footage."

" You found her phone?" Jane asked.

" Yeah." Kosrak sighed. " There was a print on it, Jane. The perp may have screwed up this time, and left evidence behind." At this point, Jane was starting to cry. She was hopeful that this evidence was helpful, but she didn't want to get her hopes up.

" Is it him? Please tell me you found the man that took my baby." Jane asked in her raspy, tearfilled voice. Korsak saw how distressed Jane was, and it broke his heart. He placed his hands of her shoulders as he spoke to her.

" It's possible. We're running the prints through the system now."

The computer screen blinked when it found a match. The prints belonged to a Marcus Carluso, 42yrs old, dark hair, brown eyes, some patchy facial hair. His licence bared to the address 1814 Lockwood Dr., it was the address of the autobody shop.

" We may have just found our driver." Frost said while everyone looked at the computer. Jane's chest tightened up as she stared at the man's face in front of her.

" Where is she, you bastard?" Jane murmered to herself. Frost connects the cases and makes a realization.

" Korsak, this autobody shop is two blocks from where we found the third victim. " Korsak flips throught the case file, and looks back at the computer screen.

" It most certainly is." Korsak exclaimed.

" So now what? What can we do?" Jane asked.

" We're gonna stake out this autobody shop. If we see this, Marcus Carluso, we can follow him to Nikki."

" A stakeout?" Jane asked, nervous and usnure of the plan Korsak had.

" Yeah, if we just go in there asking questions, it'll look too suspicious. It's best they don't know cops are sniffing around."

Jane let out a deep breath and nodded, and Maura rubbed her back to comfort her friend. The tension in the room was palpable. If this plan worked out, they could end up finding Nikki. No one knew for sure if she was dead or alive, and everyone was hoping for the best. Jane wanted so bad to trust Korsak, but she was still nervous. It had been days since Nikki was taken, and as much as Jane wanted to avoid the thought, she feared finding Nikki alive was unlikely.

With that, Korsak and Frost gathered up the case files, and headed out to stakeout the autobody shop. It was a long day of searching through evidence, and survallance footage, and It was now the middle of the night, as Korsak sat in the drivers seat, with Frost sitting next to him. There was no one at the autobody shop which was closed at this hour. No one moving around, no lights on, nothing, but they were determined to wait all night if they had to for Marcus to lead them to Nikki. Korsak could see his breath in the chilled air of the car as he sipped his coffee. He sat there relfecting on the past two and a half days of sifting through crime scene photos, autopsy reports, and the survallance footage, and his heart felt heavy. Korsak thought about the look on Jane's face when she saw Marcus's drivers lincence photo.

" We have to find her, Frost. We have to, we can't not bring her home." Korsak said as he swallowed hard.

" Hey look, we found the van, and it's driver. He has to show up sometime. We'll find her." Frost said in a way almost trying to convince himself.

" I hope so. Jane doesn't deserve to go through this. I just hope Nikki is okay."

The two men continue to sit and watch. Hours go by, and still nothing. It is now 5am, and they have been watching the shop for three hours. Several cars have started to drive by, but none of them stopped. At 6am, a black 1991 Buick Lesaber pulled up, and stopped out front, and a man in a gray hoodie stepped out, and went inside. Korsak and Frost waited with baited breath to see if the man would come back out. Korsak noticed the licence plate with the letters NLX98D, the same dealer plate that was on the van.

" Frost, that's the same dealer plate on a different car."

It was ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity, when a dark haired man, matching Marcus Carluso's description pulled the hood back over his head, and got back in the car.

" That's him, Frost." Korsak said as he started the car, and followed the buick around the corner. The car drove about five blocks down the street before turning left down a long driveway. Korsak turned quietly and followed as Marcus parked and stepped out.

" Call for back up." Korsak instructed Frost. Frost picked up the radio, and paged dispatch.

" This is Detective Frost, victor 118, we've followed our suspect to 481 Stockton Ave. Carluso has stepped inside the house, requesting back up." Dispatch pages back.

" Back up's on it's way." The two of them wanting to be as descrete as possible, quietly got out of the car, weapons drawn and approached the house. They didn't want their perp aware of police amongst them, and run the risk of him running of with Nikki, and loosing her again. Korsak slowly stepped on to the porch, and opened the door to the house. Both men's hearts were pounding, as they stepped inside. They came out of the foyer, as Carluso stepped out pointing a gun, and Frost fired a shot into his shoulder. Frost ran up, cuffed him, and planted him on the wall.

" Where is she, Carluso? Where's the girl!" Moments later another man came out with a crowbar rushing at Korsak. He takes a swing, but Korsak manages to get out of the way in time, and points his gun at him.

" Where is she!" Korsak shouts at him. Back up finally arrives,they take Carluso from Frost, and step behind the man with the crowbar.

" Drop it!" One of the officers screams, and the man lets go of the crowbar, and police coff him. Korsak walks up to the man standing nose to nose with him.

" Where is she, you son of a bitch?" Korsak snarled.

" In the bedroom." the man uttered before police took him away. Korsak hurried down the hall, pushed open a door to his left, and there she was. Korsak was relieved to see Nikki was alive and okay, even though she was frightened. Nikki layed on the bed with tape over her mouth, and her wrists and ankles were bound. She stared up at him, her icy blue eyes wet with tears. Korsak holstered his weapon, and walked up to her.

" Hey." Korsak said comming up carefully removing the tape from her mouth. " Are you okay?"

" Yeah." Nikki answered with a dry throat.

" We're gonna take you back to your mom, okay." Korsak told her as he cut her wrists and ankles free. Nikki wrapped her arms tight around Korsak,and he returned the hug. She spent three days in a dark room terrified, not knowing if she'd ever get to go home, and she was relieved to see a familiar face. All Nikki wanted to do now was leave this house behind, and go see her mom.

Meanwhile Jane sat in the cafe with Maura. She was emotionally drained from the past three days, and sat there motionless. Maura scooted closer to Jane, hooked her arm, and rested her head on Jane's shoulder. Jane sighed at the comfort of her friend, and shut her eyes tight as tears seeped out.

" What if she's already dead?" Jane uttered frightened and exhausted. Maura sat up, and rubbed her back.

" Jane, we don't know that." Maura sighed, her heart broke for her best friend. She blinked away tears, while trying to comfort Jane.

" I'm so scared, Maura." Jane cried. Maura tightened her grip on Jane's arm as Jane felt her cell phone buzz. She quickly reached for it, and saw Korsak's number.

" Vince?" She answered hopeful and dreadful at the same time.

" Jane, we found her. Nikki's with us, she's okay."

" Oh thank god." Jane sighed in relife. She was still shaky and tingly, but was so happy that her daughter was okay. The tears streamed down her face as her emotions poured out of her.

" Is she there, can I talk to her?" Jane asked crying.

" Sure." Korsak answered handing the phone to Nikki.

" Mom." Nikki said quietly. Jane smiled while she cried. It was so good to hear her daughter's voice.

" Nikki, oh my sweet girl, are you alright?"

" I'm okay."

" Oh Honey, I missed you so much." Jane sobbed.

" I missed you, too. I love you, Mom."

" I love you too, Sweetheart. I'll see you soon, okay."

" Okay."

" Bye, Sweetie."

" Bye." They hang up. Jane threw her arms around Maura.

" She's okay." Jane cried. Maura too cried in relife, she was happy Nikki ws okay, and comming home.

Jane anxiously waited with Maura and her mom for the guys to get back with Nikki. She stood in the hallway wringing her hands for what felt like an eternity. Finally the doors opened, and Nikki immediately smiled seeing her mom.

" My baby." Jane sobbed happily as she rushed up wrapping Nikki tightly in her arms. Relife washed over Jane, and she couldn't contain herself anymore. The two of them held each other tightly, and Jane sobbed and shook while she continually kissed Nikki on the side of her head. Many moments later, Jane pulled back to held her daughter's face, and kissed her forehead.

"Are you okay?" Nikki nodded as Jane wiped Nikki's tears away. She was equally relieved, scared she would never see her mom again. Nikki leaned into her mother's shoulder, and Jane continued to hold her.

" Man, am I glad to see you." Jane said rocking Nikki in her arms.

" Me too." Nikki answered. Her mother's embrace made her feel safe, and warm again. Nikki gripped her mother's soft curly hair as she began to feel calm. Angela came in next to Jane, hugged Nikki, and kissed her head.

" Welcome back, Sweetheart." said Angela.

Nikki happily hugged her mother and grandmother after being reunited with them for many moments before turning around to hug Maura. The happy, tearful medical examiner hugged and kissed the young girl, greatful as well to have her home. Maura wiped away her tears, and held Nikki's face.

" We missed you, kiddo." Maura sniffled.

" I missed you, too." Nikki answered, and wrapped her arms tight around Maura's neck. Atfer many hugs were exchanged, Jane wrapped her arm around Nikki's shoulder, and lead her out toward home.

" Come on, let's get you home where you belong." The two walked down the steps, climbed in Jane's car, and headed back to the apartment. Nikki called Thereasa in the car on the way home to let her know she was okay. Even though she was still asleep, she welcomed the phone call, and was delighted to hear her best friends voice.

Later that evening, Jane sat on her bed staring at the alarm clock in a bit of a haze. The emotional stress of the past few days left Jane a bit fuzzy, still she was happy to have her little girl back. Jane layed back on her bed, sighed heavily, and closed her eyes trying to settle herself. She layed there awake staring at the ceiling for awhile before she noticed Nikki standing in her doorway. Jane turned propped up on pillows to face her.

"Hey." Jane said smiling. Nikki was happy to be home, but scared to be by herself. She'd hadn't seen Jane for three long days, and needed her mother's company.

" Mommy, can...can I sleep in here with you?" Nikki asked shyly. Jane smiled, and reached out to her daughter whe eagerly climbed in bed, and snuggled up to her. Jane covered Nikki with the blanket, kissed the top of her head,a nd rubbed circles on her back until she driffted off to sleep. As exhausted as Jane was she couldn't sleep. She just layed there watching Nikki sleep in her arms. With a deep sigh of contentment, she was greatful her baby girl was home safe and sound.


End file.
